http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/english-tudor-gardens.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/english-tudor-gardens.html Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
A number of sun-dials were also scattered about, both for use and ornament. Henry VIII apparently ordered them by the dozen. Sun-dials had existed in England before the Roman invasion, but interest in them seems to have been especially keen during the sixteenth century. The first book in English devoted to dialing was published in 1533, and was largely a translation from Witkendus. At this period the actual dial was more fanciful than at a later date and often formed an armillary sphere.

A water supply was considered a very important adjunct to the garden. A central feature was often a well or fountain fed by a spring, or a cistern. Cisterns were made of lead and decorated in such a way as to make them very ornamental.

Various games were played in the garden or its vicinity. Bowling-alleys and greens for archery were common. All that was required was a stretch of good, firm turf or gravel. Tennis was another favorite game. Henry VIII was passionately fond of tennis. Sometimes he used to play in the walled court for "close tennis play " at Hampton Court, which is the oldest one in England, and has since served as a model for many others.


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Robert Erickson writes for garden-fountains.com. A huge selection of wall fountains can be found at garden-fountains.com, as well as garden planters and garden statuary.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/pleasure-gardens-in-the-age-of-queen-elizabeth.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/pleasure-gardens-in-the-age-of-queen-elizabeth.html Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
Most of the finest houses in England were built at this period. After their erection an attempt to give them fit surroundings was a natural sequence. All conditions were ripe for the evolution of delightful pleasure gardens, which for form without formality have never been surpassed. Both the art and craft of their construction were understood as certainly never before, and perhaps never afterward.

As an art this garden making was imbued with the creative as well as the imitative spirit of the Renaissance. Men's eyes were opened, as if for the first time, to the charming aspects of life old and new, past and present. A delight in the beauty of nature as well as in that of artistic invention seemed to develop spontaneously. Its practical outcome was the creation of a style of decoration known as that of the early English Renaissance, which was applied to every branch of design, and finally clothed the garden in fanciful array.

Past records, especially of classic Greece and Italy, were searched for information concerning the growth and arrangement of plants and the garden's architectural features. Early in the Renaissance the advice of these classic writers was offered by Thomas Hill and other English authors, apparently on the supposition that it would be followed literally, without considering that the passage of centuries and the difference between Italian and English customs and climate might destroy a part of its usefulness. But the Elizabethan age continued after the death of Elizabeth, and in the seventeenth century the growth of individuality made slavish imitation impossible. Precedent was followed only when suitable, and useless traditions were cast aside. Then systems of horticulture were evolved, adapted to a particular age, climate, and country.


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Robert Erickson writes for garden-fountains.com. A huge selection of romaneque style wall fountains can be found at garden-fountains.com, as well as garden planters and garden statuary.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/the-dutch-garden-in-england.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/the-dutch-garden-in-england.html Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
This individuality was due to the limited extent of terra-firma and to the abundance of water in Holland. An ordinary plan became extraordinary because laid out on such a surprisingly small scale. A scheme covering dozens of acres in France was to be seen reproduced on a fewer number of feet in Holland. The parterres of Versailles might almost as well have been reduced to serve as embroidery for a pocket handkerchief. In a Dutch garden no tree could be admitted until its growth had been stunted, and no flower larger than a tulip could be allowed to engross the space without danger of spoiling the composition. Shell-work took the place of marble, and glass balls or other trivial objects were often substituted for statues, as ornamentation. Miniature canals were more usual than fountains; for the supply of water, though large, had not the force to rise to a height. A favorite architectural feature was a grotto, answering the purpose of both an arbor and a summer-house. This niche of shell-work, sometimes encasing paintings of mythological subjects and sheltering a spout of water, was far less attractive than similar niches at Pompeii, where the barocco ornamentation appeared more appropriate.

Evidences of Dutch taste were shown in England by the frequent introduction of dwarf trees, choice tulips, and canals of water. Although the dampness of the climate made grottoes peculiarly unattractive, they also were favorite accessions. Travelers early in the seventeenth century often described the famous grotto at Wilton, but this was rather in the Italian than the Dutch style. Evelyn designed one at Albury with a "crypta through the mountain thirty perches in length." Defoe mentions gardens at Richmond and Sutton Court where besides canals there were several grottoes, and others are described by various other writers.


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Robert Erickson writes for garden-fountains.com. A huge selection of garden fountains can be found at garden-fountains.com, as well as garden planters and garden statuary.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/english-gardens-of-the-17th-century.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/english-gardens-of-the-17th-century.html Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
The English — perhaps because they had most abused the conventional system — were the first to raise an outcry against formal gardening. Formality could certainly be carried to no greater excess; it was logical to seek beauty in a contrary extreme. Freedom from every restraint was the gospel of the new school. Kent, its leader according to Walpole, was the first to jump outside the fence and insist that the garden should be "set free from its prim regularity, and the gentle stream taught to serpentize." His method, as described by Lord Kames, was, "to paint a field with beautiful objects, natural and artificial, disposed like colors upon a canvas.”

It requires indeed more genius to paint in the gardening way: in forming a landscape upon a canvas, no more is required but to adjust the figures to each other. An artist who lays out grounds in Kent's way has an additional task: he ought to adjust the figures to the several varieties of the field.

In plain words, nothing remained of the old style in the new gardens. These latter consisted of smooth lawns of grass, diversified by clumps of trees, and intersected by curved paths or irregular pieces of water. Nature was said to abhor a straight line; hence walks and brooks were always laid out in "serpentine meanders."

Marks of decay are often to be seen in nature; Kent reproduced this effect by planting dead trees and stumps. These attempts to make a beautiful wilderness often resulted in nothing but a confused mass of disorder, and were received with ridicule even by the sentimentalists.


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Robert Erickson writes for garden-fountains.com. A huge selection of garden water fountains can be found at garden-fountains.com, as well as garden planters and garden statuary.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/french-and-english-gardens-of-the-middle-ages.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/french-and-english-gardens-of-the-middle-ages.html Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
In the most important of these illustrations (which is on the opposite page, and was taken from a fourteenth-century Flemish manuscript preserved at the British Museum), the garden is shown as a whole, ornamented with many quaint details. It is enclosed by a crenellated wall, surrounded by a moat. The subdivisions are formed by a fence of wooden trellis-work, on the topmost railing of which is balanced a peacock. In the left-hand division is a copper fountain head, where the water, spouting from lions' mouths, drips into a circular basin, and runs off through a marble channel embedded in the turf. Velvety grass, thickly sprinkled with daisies, surrounds the fountain and forms a soft seat for the little company of merrymakers who are singing and playing upon musical instruments.

A garden, according to the derivation of the word from zerd, garth, or yard (three nouns from the same Aryan root as the French word Jardin), originally signified a walled but unroofed enclosure containing cultivated vegetation. Usually this vegetation principally consisted of herbs, grass, or fruit trees.

This enclosure protected the vegetation from marauders, and secluded its occupants. Privacy was a very important characteristic of the garden. Inside the castle there was scant opportunity for confidential conversation. So when people wished to talk without being overlooked or overheard, they were apt to retire to the pleasure garden.

The earliest fences were commonly wattled, that is, woven of osiers. Others, more ornamental, were formed of rails or of pickets, and painted green. Hedges often enclosed the later gardens, instead of walls. The bushes used for this purpose were privet (thus called perhaps because it served to insure privacy), thorn, sweetbrier, and yew. Moats were also common, the water accommodating fish and swans.


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Written by Robert Erickson for garden-fountains.com. Shopping for outdoor wall fountains? We suggest you visit garden-fountains.com for all your garden decor supplies.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/orchards-in-english-pleasure-gardens.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/orchards-in-english-pleasure-gardens.html Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
Many fruit trees are said to have been imported from France, especially in the thirteenth century, and hence were known by French names. Among the varieties of pears were the rule or regul, the passe-pucelle, and the caloel or caillou. Pearmain and costard apples were probably also of French origin. Cherries had been reintroduced at the time of the Norman Conquest. Peaches, medlars, quinces, and chestnuts were commonly cultivated and imported from abroad. Grafting was a well understood craft. Scions often or twelve distinct varieties of trees were grown upon an oak stock. Vines were grafted on cherries and plums on vines.

If a large number of herbs were cultivated, they were sometimes set apart in an herbary. But many flowers which are now considered purely ornamental were then supposed to have healing properties, or to be fit ingredients for sauces and savouries; so the herbary was not strictly devoted to the plants we should consider as herbs. Besides the plants grown for medicinal and culinary purposes, were others intended to be distilled into love philters and perhaps poisons.


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Written by Robert Erickson for garden-fountains.com. Shopping for wall water fountains? We suggest you visit garden-fountains.com for all your garden decor supplies.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/homes-and-pleasure-gardens-of-england.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/homes-and-pleasure-gardens-of-england.html Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
The sites of new dwellings were not chosen based on inaccessibility like those of the castles. Now, instead of seeking a defensible position, people preferred situations that were pleasant and salubrious, where they might live protected from the cold winds, and where gardens and orchards might be cultivated advantageously. Thus, like the earlier monastic edifices, a gentleman's house was more often built in a valley than on a hilltop. There was more room for expansion, and near the house the grounds under cultivation could be extended to answer the increasing demands for various kinds of plantations.

At first both house and gardens still seem to have been protected not only by walls, but with a moat. Such was the residence of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, at Thornbury. From a 1521 description (which is all that remains of the gardens now) it appears that the gardens were well supplied with galleries and arbors, or, as they are quaintly entitled, "roosting-places."

Gradually, battlements, moats, and other defensive accessories ceased to be built in connection with the house, and were retained only to secure the gardens from intruders and for the preservation of the trees and plants from severe winds and the depredations of marauders. Cardinal Wolsey's palace and grounds at Hampton Court were among the last to be made secure by moats as well as walls. It was in these gardens that the cardinal was accustomed to walk at the close of day as he recited even-song. His fondness for this recreation and the beauty of the gardens (which were located near the Pond Garden, and no longer exist) were well noted by his disciple, Cavendish.


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Robert Erickson writes for garden-fountains.com. A huge selection of wall water fountains can be found at garden-fountains.com, as well as garden planters and garden statuary.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/the-gardens-at-hampton-court.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/the-gardens-at-hampton-court.html Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
But the finest of the Tudor gardens were at Hampton Court, where Cardinal Wolsey's work was almost entirely swept away to make room for the improvements designed by Henry VIII. These changes covered part of the space between the palace and the river, and the only portion now remaining is the small enclosure known as the Pond Garden. Of oblong shape, surrounded by an outer wall of brick, the ground is laid out on three different levels, with low retaining walls and copings of stone; in this stone one can see the holes whereby were fastened the thirty or more heraldic beasts which formerly served to strengthen the wooden railings striped with white and green, the royal colors. Above one corner of the wall appears a battlemented banqueting house built by Henry VII. In the center of the enclosure is a round fountain, on a line with the entrance at one end and a vine-covered arbor opposite. From the royal accounts we know that among the flowers originally ordered for the garden in Henry VIII's time were "violettes and Primroses, Gilliver-slips, mints, and other sweet flowers. Sweet Williams by the bushel" It was weeded and watered by women for two cents a day. In this garden young Henry VIII carried on his first flirtations with Anne Boleyn, and here, when overtaken by infirmities, he used to hobble about in his premature old age.


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Robert Erickson writes for garden-fountains.com. A huge selection of fountains can be found at garden-fountains.com, as well as garden planters and garden statuary.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/how-the-medieval-english-planned-a-home-and-gardens.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/how-the-medieval-english-planned-a-home-and-gardens.html Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
The choice of site was given careful consideration, and an unexpected importance was attached to the view. "After that a man have chosen a convenient soil and place ... he must afore cast in his mind that the prospect to and fro the place be pleasant, fair and good to the eye to behold the woods, the waters, the fields, the dales, the hills as the plain ground." In the opinion of all the early writers, the garden and orchard were always to be located as near as possible to the house, and to be considered as an integral part of the same premises.

The approach to the house and gardens was through one or more courtyards, where peacocks sometimes answered the purpose of watch-dogs. "The peacock is a bird of more beautified feathers than any other that is, he is quickly angry, but he is far off from taking good hold with his feet, he is goodly to behold, very good to eat, and serve as a watch in the inner court, for that he spying strangers to come into the lodging he fail not to cry out and advertise them of the house."

Doves too dwelt in the courtyard or in the garden. "A dove-house is also a necessary thing about a mansion place," Borde says.


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Robert Erickson writes for garden-fountains.com. A huge selection of outdoor fountains can be found at garden-fountains.com, as well as garden planters and garden statuary.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/plants-in-english-tudor-gardens.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/gardening/plants-in-english-tudor-gardens.html Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
Among the more ornamental plants grown in the garden were the acanthus, asphodel, auricula, amaranth (flower gentle or flower amor), cornflower (or bottle blew, red, and white), cowslip, daffodil, daisy, gilly-flower (red, white, and carnation), hollyhock (red, white, and carnation), iris (flower de luce or the flos delictarum of the Middle Ages), Indian eye, lavender, larkspur (larkes foot), lily of the valley, lily (white and red), double marigold, nigella Romana, pansy or heart's-ease, pink, peony, periwinkle, poppy, primrose, rocket, roses of many sorts, including the sweetbrier or eglantine, snap-dragon (snag dragon), clove gillyflower (sops-in-wine), sweet-william, sweet-john, star of Bethlehem, star of Jerusalem, stock gillyflower, tuft gillyflower, velvet flower (French marigold), violet, wallflower, and besides, sweet-smelling herbs, such as mint and marjoram.

The shape of the flowerbeds was considered more important than their contents. The four quarters formed by the main alleys, which intersected the middle of the garden, were enclosed by a latticework fence or striped railings fastened to posts or to carved beasts. These quarters were subdivided into knots. The knot was either a geometrical pattern or the outline of some fanciful shape, such as a dragon, kept in place by a coping of wood, brick, stone, or tiles, and edged with box or some other border plant. The design of the knot was known as open or closed, according to whether it was merely outlined with a border plant, and strewn inside the outlines with colored sands, or was filled with growing flowers.

A maze or labyrinth was another favorite ornamental design, and sometimes took the place of the knots. Occasionally it was planted with hedges high enough to conceal the intricacies of the paths, and to force the uninitiated to wander long upon the outskirts, unable to penetrate within; but often it was merely outlined with lavender or some other low growing plant, and served simply as a form of decoration. The central object point was usually an arbor or a clipped tree.


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Robert Erickson writes for garden-fountains.com. A huge selection of outdoor water fountains can be found at garden-fountains.com, as well as garden planters and garden statuary.



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